1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to wireless communication systems and in particular to wireless communication systems for managing on-call communication to a group of wireless communication devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, when a person needs to contact a doctor on weekends and holidays, the standard procedure is to call the doctor""s office and be connected to an answering service. The service takes down the caller""s information and pages the doctor, who then calls either the answering service, or the person who called originally. The answering service must be provided with up-to-date contact information on each of the doctors involved, including which doctors are on call at a particular time. Typically there will be a group of doctors that rotate the on-call duty, dependent upon the day of the week and time of the day. Variations in who is on-call occur due to doctor illnesses, vacations, etc. Keeping up with these variations generally requires a coordinator to keep track of the changes and keep the answering service informed.
This situation also exists in other circumstances which require a person (or group of persons) to be on call to answer calls or queries or coordinate responses to an emergency situation such as public safety personnel, emergency response team personnel, and nuclear power station engineers.
One disadvantage with the current method is the turnaround time involved, which depends upon how busy the answering service is at a particular time, how many people they have employed, and the efficiency with which they perform. A second disadvantage with the current method is the difficulty in keeping up with roster changes, and the status of those on the roster. A third disadvantage with the current method is that the on-call doctors are limited in where they go and what they do while they are on-call. They cannot travel to neighboring cities outside a particular travel distance, unless they first clear this with the coordinator mentioned above, and the answering service is notified.
What is needed is an improved solution that automates the on-call management functionality, thereby eliminating the answering service middle layer, which will reduce the response time to calls. Further, a quick, reliable, and efficient method to make changes to the duty roster is also needed.